IPL advertising on TV vs digital: How pricing will impact advertisers' buying decision

As Disney Star and JioCinema are out with their advertising rates for IPL 2024 on television and digital, advertisers are flooded with options.

On comparing both the rate cards, prima facie, TV advertising appears to be far more cost-effective than digital.

As the advertisers would soon be churning out the best plan for their respective brands to reach out to their target audience, BestMediaInfo.com asked them how they justify their buying on the two mediums.

In its exclusive report, BestMediaInfo.com broke the news last week that JioCinema will offer FCT on mobile/web for the first time at Rs 16 lakh for a 10-second slot.

On the other hand, Star Sports is offering a 10-second slot on SD television for Rs 12.8 lakh claiming that TV delivers 3X scale, brand impact and ROI for brands when compared with digital.

Shalini Kumar

According to Shalini Kumar, Area Media Lead - India Subcontinent, Haleon, told BestMediaInfo.com that the rate per spot comparison between the two mediums is not correct because the idea is to reach out to the audience one-on-one on digital while TV needs a certain frequency to get that exposure.

Shashank Srivastava

Sharing his version of TV vs digital comparison, Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Director, Marketing and Sales, Maruti Suzuki, said that digital gives more flexibility in terms of targeting.

Noting that TV for the overall audience comes to be slightly cheaper, Srivastava said that digital offers more options if brands have limited budgets.

“For mass-market brands, TV is a relatively better option but for brands targeting more niche or affluent segments, CTV, Mobile (+3 level) and HD TV offer more efficiency in media buying,” he added.

CTV advertising on JioCinema will cost Rs 6.5 lakh for a 10-second slot.

Overall as per BARC and other industry estimates around 4-5% of households are cord-cutters. Hence the CTV reach comes to around 40-50 mn individuals.

On the other hand, HD has a reach of ~150 mn viewers – 3X of CTV and it costs Rs 5.5 lakhs.

“For these consumers, CTV is the primary device. Hence, brands who want to target an affluent and urban-centric audience, have to be present on CTV,” Srivastava said adding that HD is overall higher in reach but has a higher spillover also.

Meanwhile, Ashish Tiwari, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Home Credit India, explained that TV ads cannot be customised to reach only a particular age or income group. However, with CTV or digital advertising, such targeting is feasible. Tiwari noted that while the cost per unit may rise with more precise targeting, the cost per effective unit remains more economical in these digital channels.

"Two-way communication mediums generally outperform one-way channels across various categories. For FMCG, a one-way medium is effective due to its quick function, ensuring top-of-mind awareness. Conversely, for car brands with longer purchase cycles and deeper product engagement, a two-way medium is more suitable,” Tiwari said. 

“Don’t look at a medium from an absolute perspective. Look at the medium from the product category and consumer set perspective. The more a product category needs the seasoning, the longer is the gestation and the longer is the engagement with the product,” he added. 

According to Kumar, HD has a very event-specific viewership and hence monthly reach is much less than the numbers that keep getting quoted as connections.

“HD TV and a CTV household are considered as a filter for reaching out to premium audiences but CTV caters to those light viewers and cord cutters which is incremental over TV. We have seen people watching OTT apps through connected TV even if they have analogue connections,” Kumar said.

Considering the digital rate at a combined level of Rs 22.5 Lakh (Mobile + CTV) versus Rs 16.4 Lakh (SD+HD) on TV, advertisers are left with no choice despite finding the former overpriced with the fact that TV is about double the digital, especially when they look at the peak concurrency on both platforms.

Maruti’s Srivastava said they look into all the data points.

“Not only do we consider rates and peak concurrency of the mediums but we also consider overall consumption, cord cutters, solus reach of mediums as well as duplicated reach, reach by Urban vs rural, reach by NCCS, levels of targeting, HD vs CTV, even time of day for arriving at decisions related to buying media. We marry our TG media consumption habits, the timing of the events and our brand requirements to arrive at the best media mix,” he explained.

To get visibility on TV and similar on digital, an advertiser will end up spending the same amount but in the absence of huge outlays, the choice is basis the audience that the brand needs, said Kumar of Haleon.

“If it is the metro affluent audience, then it has to be digital CTV first. Similarly, if it is a mass brand, then the choice is between mobile vs TV reach where digital CPM will be much better than the other,” she added.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com